Construction company Norberto Odebrecht is ahead of two large projects in Libya: the two new passenger terminals at Tripoli International Airport and the third ring road around the country capital. The aerial terminals, when ready, should have potential to receive 64 aircraft simultaneously and around 20 million passengers a year. Today the capacity is for 3 million people.
With this, the government of Libya, apart from providing incentives to tourism in the country, wants to become a hub for connections to other destinations, mainly in Africa. The forecast is that 30% should be domestic movement and the rest transit passengers.
Multicultural
One characteristic of the works is the diversity of nationality of the workers. Today, according to the company, there are 4,000 people working on the construction of the airport and they are from 25 different backgrounds. In the ring road, there are around 800 workers, of which 50% are Libyan and the others from 17 different nations. In both projects there are 120 Brazilians working.
One of them is Antonio Sales, aged 52, a technician specialized in the coordination of civil construction works, who is working at the airport site. He has been in Libya for nine months and lived in Angola for 10 years prior to that.
According to him, the adaptation is not easy due to the cultural and language differences, but in daily life these cultures are being overcome. What cannot be overcome is the fact of the workers missing of their families; after all, their wives and families stay in Brazil. To soothe the problem, the company grants 12 days leave for every 75 days worked.
Great demand
In Algeria, the second phase of the mission to North Africa organized by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the Brazilian ambassador to Algiers, Sérgio Danese, knew of the arrival of the delegation: "Algeria is the market with the greatest repressed demand in the region, and we arrived late."
He pointed out, however, that the interest of Algerian businessmen in Brazil has been rising at great speed. Ever since he was inaugurated in the embassy, in 2005, the number of visas granted to businessmen has grown almost fourfold.
Reserves
One figure that called attention of the businessmen was the volume of foreign currency reserves of Algeria. The country has US$ 110 billion in foreign currencies, comparatively little less than Brazil, which has around US$ 200 billion, considering the fact that Algeria has a population of around 34 million inhabitants and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated at US$ 160 billion, as against Brazil’s 190 million inhabitants and GDP of US$ 1.3 trillion.
Papaw with sugar
The countries of North Africa are aiming to attract partnerships with foreign companies that involve technology transfer, and that does not mean a need to go after agreements with great corporations.
One of the members of the Brazilian delegation was Ulisses Brambini, president of Bello, a producer and exporter of fruit, especially papaw, headquartered in southern Bahia.
In talks during a dinner offered by the Brazilian embassy in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, he glimpsed a possibility of producing fruit in the country with techniques he uses in Brazil, in the case of greenhouse use guaranteeing the maintenance of a micro climate in hot and dry areas.
Casablanca
After speaking of the advantages Morocco offers to exporters that establish themselves in the country, the director of the Regional Investment Centre of Casablanca, Hamid Belafdil, decided to sell his projects to the audience of the Brazil-Morocco business seminar, on Friday (30).
He said that Casablanca region, the main economic hub in the country, has 4 million inhabitants and a need for 35,000 housing units. Belafdil added that, in the near future, an industrial and commercial zone should be opened there in an area of 5,000 hectares. Foreign companies may establish themselves there.
The main sectors in the region, according to him, are the textile industry, the auto industry, the aeronautics sector and the area of information technology.
Platform
Tunisia is trying to establish itself as a product export platform to Europe. The country offers a series of incentives to foreign companies that decide to promote industrial investment aimed at exports.
According to figures supplied by the local government, Tunisia is already the main supplier to the European Union among the nations of North Africa and plans to double industrial exports up to 2016. For such, apart from fiscal incentives, the country offers investors facilities in free trade agreements covering over 50 countries, including those in the European bloc.
*Translated by Mark Ament
